The Guelph Storm is heading to the Western Conference final for the first time since 2006 after eliminating the London Knights with a thrilling 5-4 win Friday at a sold-out Sleeman Centre Friday night.

Guelph takes the best-of-seven series 4-1.

"Wow. What a game and what a series," said Storm coach Scott Walker.

"I don't think 4-1 is indicative of how close that series was and what a hard-fought battle that was for the guys. It was real fun and real exciting. This is a lot of fun right now."

The Knights will now have five weeks off before playing host to the 2014 Memorial Cup.

The Storm and Otters will meet for the first time in a playoff series in 15 years. They last met in the post season at the 2002 Memorial Cup.

Game 1 is Thursday in Guelph with Game 2 the following night.

"This has been five years of work and it feels even better beating the London Knights because they're the league champions the last couple of years," said Storm overager Zack Mitchell, who had never won a round of the playoffs in five years with the Storm until this season.

Scott Kosmachuk's goal at 16:24 of the second period stood up as the game winner as the puck somehow slipped through the skates of London netminder Jake Patterson from a very sharp angle.

The Storm then threw a wet blanket on the Knights in a scoreless third period, even surviving the emotional letdown of having an apparent goal waived off after review.

Guelph played a brilliant defensive third period.

"We played really well defensively in that third period," said Ryan Horvat. "We were all together and talking to one another and collapsing in the middle. We came together as a team.

"We did what we had to do. You don't want to tense up too much or overthink it. You want to make sure you're not sitting back, because that's when goals happen."

Mitchell said if the team wants to go even further in the playoffs, it has to be able to do what it did Friday night in protecting the one-goal lead for the final 20 minutes.

"It's all part of building as a team and you just have to keep getting better at it," Mitchell said.

It looked like it was going to be a shootout at the Sleeman Centre in the early going.

The score was 2-2 after one period then London took its only lead of the game early in the second when Matt Rupert scored on a penalty shot.

But the Storm got a break to tie the game halfway through the third period when Tyler Bertuzzi's centring pass went in off the stick of London's Brett Welychka to tie the game, then Robby Fabbri put Guelph ahead one minute, 17 seconds later on the power play.

Josh Anderson tied it with a London power play goal at 16:17, setting the stage for Kosmachuk's sharp-angled winner.

Game 3 and Game 4 of the Western Conference final will be in Erie on April 21 and 22.